"Reina, are you awake?"
A voice broke the silence and startled the girl. She sat up abruptly, her breathing becoming ragged.
"Don't worry, it's me, Pardo," the voice whispered, coming closer.
"But have you gotten into the habit of coming to visit me every night?" she snorted, falling onto the pillow, yawning.
A musical laugh reached her ear from very close by. She felt the mattress sag to the right and someone slide beside her.
"How long have you had permission to lie on my bed?" she grumbled, her voice thick. "This is trespassing."
"It's not your house, and you told me to come whenever I wanted," the young man laughed, giving her a gentle nudge with his elbow. "Admit you're a privileged daughter of riches, given how soft this bed is."
Reina smiled and returned the nudge.
"As long as Grandma's money pays for my stay, I can still afford a few luxuries. It's a shame this softness has never helped me sleep soundly."
"How's the therapy going?" he asked, changing his tone.
"I still feel a strong pressure on my temples, but I must say the noises are quieter," he admitted.
"And your stalkers, do you still see them?"
"Yes, but they seem to have calmed down. Could it be the drugs, do you think?"
"It could be, and I hope for your sake they do their job, so you can get out of this terrible place," he consoled her.
"Will you come with me?" she asked, sitting up.
She got no answer, so she reached out and turned on the bedside lamp.
Pardo was still lying there, staring at her seriously, a hint of sadness in his eyes.
"Don't you want to come?" he asked in an uncertain voice.
"I can't, you know. It would be wonderful to leave here, but I have no one waiting for me outside," he replied sadly.
"Any relatives?"
The boy shook his head, and she sighed. She realized she didn't know his story and had never fully understood why he'd been committed to the institution.
"Tell me something about yourself?" she asked gently, making him smile.
"I was wondering when you'd ask. You're strange, Reina. It seems like the world and its miseries slip away from you without a trace, but then you manage to surprise me."
He sat up, resting his head against the headboard.
Reina let out a groan.
"Thank you," she muttered bitterly.
She didn't understand why everyone thought she didn't care about others.
The boy's hand covered hers and he smiled at her.
"Be quiet, and I'll tell you about this bad boy's misadventures."
He winked at her, making her smile. He was really cute, with those blue, green-tinged eyes and his shock of jet-black hair. She'd seen little of him during the day, having different sessions and workshops, but even though she wouldn't admit it, she'd missed him dearly.
She wondered if he was hanging out with any of the other girls at the school, but when she was about to ask, he started talking, silenced her, telling her story.
It had started out as a normal weekday: he and his sister getting ready for school, their father gathering papers and stuffing them into their workbook, their mother making breakfast. A thud, and their routine was thrown into disarray.
Nadine, their sister, was screaming her mother's name, their father was barking into the phone at someone from 911 who couldn't send an ambulance because they didn't have one at the moment, and he stood frozen in the doorway, staring at the woman's bloodless face.
Paul, their father, had frantically begged them to help him carry her to the car, they had placed her and Nadine in the back seat and driven off quickly.
Buckled into the front seat, Pardo wrapped his arms around himself, watching his father run through several traffic lights and zigzag onto Highway 101 to reach Fort Lauderdale General Hospital. His face was a jumble of emotions he'd never forgotten, even though ten years had passed.
It seemed that this mad rush would provide an answer to his mother's ailments, leading up to that terrible crash.
"Were you in a car accident?" Reina stammered.
"The biggest accident in the history of the United States," she replied, grimacing. "You expect another car or a huge truck to fall on you, and instead, do you know what happened? A plane. A damn plane fell on us from the sky!"
The girl gasped, and Pardo rose from the bed. His lips were compressed, his face pale.
"Due to poor maintenance, a Chalk's International Airlines flight from Fort Lauderdale crashed onto Highway 101, hitting about fifty vehicles and causing the suspended section of highway to collapse. It was an unparalleled massacre."
"But you were in the car, how...?" she whispered, astonished.
"I can't explain it to you. I don't remember anything except sitting in an ambulance where a nurse was bandaging my head. In the hospital, after many days, I learned what had happened to me. The doctors called me Lazarus and told me that, after extracting me unharmed from my father's car, I started screaming at the top of my lungs and then collapsed to the ground. Apparently my heart stopped beating for twenty minutes, and if it hadn't been for a doctor who kept resuscitating me all that time, I would have died."
"It's terrible, Pardo!" Reina exclaimed, reaching out and hugging him.
"Yes, but I don't remember anything about those moments. The truly terrible thing came later, when I was discharged," he whispered, enjoying the warmth.
"What happened?"
The boy was silent for a moment, and Reina moved away to observe him.
"Death called me back," he replied in a serious voice. "Every month, on the day of the accident, I was sucked into the afterlife for twenty minutes. I don't know how it happened, or why, but my body remained rigid and cold, while I wandered in the darkness, enveloped by icy presences, like damp rags brushing against my body."
Reina covered her mouth with her hand, shocked.
"How long did this happen?" she asked.
"It still happens now," she replied with a faint smile. "But don't worry, I'm still here."
"Oh my God, this is terrible!" the girl exclaimed. "Is that why you see ghosts?"
"A psychic told me some time ago that in my comings and goings to the world of the dead, I carry restless souls. It's not something I do voluntarily; it's like a sort of exchange for my journey among the dead."
"Do you think this interdimensional journey is your fault?"
Pardo nodded sadly.
"The various doctors who have examined me over the years, who call my condition 'Lazarus Syndrome,' believe that I've never come to terms with the loss of my loved ones and that this pain is the trigger for the trance that grips me. They naturally believe it's a defense mechanism; they don't believe I actually travel between dimensions, but they've never been able to explain the phenomenon, nor found a cure that can free me from this torment."
"Does it hurt? I mean, when it happens, do you feel pain?" she wanted to know.
"No, just chills in your bones."
"Have you found them? Your loved ones, I mean," she asked regretfully.
"Never," she sighed. "What day is it?"
"The 7th, the day after tomorrow,"
Reina bit her lip.
"Do you really want to continue this journey?" she asked.
The boy shook his head.
"It's not up to me. I tried to stop it, to resign myself to the pain, but it never stops."
"We can do this together," he proposed.
"What? No. If the dead want to take you to their world, I certainly won't be the one to offer you passage," he replied brusquely. "You won't come near me that day, okay?"
Reina shook her head and turned away from him.
"Hey, I'm willing to drug you so you don't reach me."
"You could ask Luca," she murmured thoughtfully.
"And what do you think he can do for me? He's forgotten, he has nothing of interest to them."
"Can I at least ask him what he knows and if he can do anything?"
Reluctantly, he nodded, and Reina hugged him again.
"One of us has to escape this vicious circle. Promise you'll try," he whispered in her ear.
The young man nodded and cursed himself for revealing his secret.
He had wanted so much to share his heavy burden with her, to make her understand that he believed in what tormented her, but he had ended up piquing her curiosity.
He sighed and pulled away from her.
"I have to go. I'm sorry I woke you."
"It was nice to see you again and hear about you," he admitted.
"But keep your promise," he reminded her.
"I'll try," he replied with a sly smile.
Shaking his head, Pardo reached the balcony, closed the doors behind him, and leaped over the parapet.
The girl remained silent, wrapping herself in the blankets.
An icy cold gripped her legs and a shiver ran through her limbs.
It would have been hard to fall asleep again after that discovery.
The dawn light caught her drowsy, and the cold touch on her arm made her jump. Luca was sitting on the bedside table, frowning.
"What else is going on?" he muttered, covering his head with the pillow.
"There's movement in the shadows," he replied.
"What?" she exclaimed, freeing herself and sitting up.
"It started after midnight, and strange things are happening."
"What does that mean?"
Luca made a movement, as if to shrug, and climbed up to the ceiling.
"I don't know. There are different shadows," he admitted.
Reina kicked off the covers and headed for the bathroom, carrying her clothes with her. There was a commotion, the sound of running water, and after about ten minutes, she returned to the bedroom, combed and dressed.
"Let's go!" she ordered the ghost, who was swinging next to the chandelier.
Luca didn't move.
"Oh, are you moving? We need to figure out what's going on, and Pardo needs you too!" she snorted.
"You can't go," she said sadly. "I have to keep you safe!"
"What are you saying? I need to talk to Arkham, and if you don't want to come, you can stay here alone."
She turned and put her hand on the doorknob, but a powerful wave knocked her back, knocking her against the couch. She lay limp, her legs sprawled out, her face covered by her hair, upside down.
Luca let out a soft sigh.
"Sorry, it's for your own good," he murmured, coming up to her and touching her hair. "I won't let those damned people take you away!"
He crouched down beside her, beginning to mutter an unfamiliar chant.